Recently I noticed a member of my Twitter community using Anchor FM. At first I was a skeptic, do we really need another tool to reflect or blog with? I already write this blog, I keep a blog for my classroom, I connect on many social media platforms. Would this be worth my time? Knowing my writing limitations and feeling more confidant as a public speaker, there was no harm in checking it out.
Once downloaded I gave the app a try. I found the tool easy to use and straight forward. Just speak in the phone to record you voice, add music to the background, preview and publish. The app connects to other social media accounts to allow for audience. Anchor was what I had been dreaming about. I can blog while driving just by talking into my bluetooth! I can quickly record my thoughts to save for later. I can choose to share or just keep them private. Anchor even allows you to create your own podcasts! The coolest part is listeners can call in to comment on your Anchor posts, giving instant feedback! Could I use this tool in the classroom?
My brain is swirling with ideas of how to have my middle school students use Anchor! We have 4 Ipads and 10 Ipods at school. With Anchor I can have students record their thoughts on learning activities, call-in to reflect on others recordings and have students create podcasts about their learning. Anchor can be used in many ways in the classroom. It can help student articulate their thinking, practice public speaking and ultimately become better writers when listening to their work.
Recently I discovered that Anchor has the ability to take spoken word and turn it into a video. Here is one created from my post today:
I did need to edit some of the transcription. My students will love this feature and it will help them work on proof reading skills. (Which I need too!) This video is such an improvement over my talking head Video Logs (Vlogs).
Check out Anchor, this tool has endless possibilities in classroom Anchoring our students learning!
Anchor can be used to:
- Reflect
- Retell/Restate
- Summarize
- Expand on ideas
- Debate
- Hypothesize
- Predict
- Practice speaking
- Give students an authentic audience
Please share your ideas of how you might use Anchor.
Sweat to Inspire 